Getting older is not a bad thing...

Especially with loving family and friends. And when they know you and your passions, history and wishes very nice things can happen. For example, when your 50th birthday is approaching you may not have too much to be excited about. But then, my family from Croatia came just few days before (I'm sure they had to push few things around) the birthday. My wife organized a dinner in very nice restaurant (Sails, for people from Auckland) and then it all changed.

After ordering drinks and meals my brother-in-law could not hold the excitement any more and he insisted to give me the presents. There was a big pile of presents from my family, mum and sister, brother-in-law's family and my friends. I had no idea what treasure could be hiding in there...

After opening all the presents I was overwhelmed with joy and surprise. Now I am the proud owner of Atari 1040 ST! Again! Last time that was in late 1980-es in another country in another lifetime.

Here is my latest gaming rig.

But wait, there's more! I also got a one of the best games for Atari ST that I have ever played. For younger generations it is Xenon. And that is an original game with the box and manual!

If you didn't have 8-bit or 16-bit computer from that time you may not know that you will need the joystick to play games. It was almost a strange feeling to play with the joystick but it went away very quickly.

Getting a working Atari ST these days in not an easy task and Jovica did that for me. You don't know how much this means to me.

As you know my blog's name is called after Zerg from Starcraft. My wife knows it too well and here is what I got.

First time I checked for this license plate was probably 4 years ago (if not more) and i wasn't surprised it was available. Last time I checked was about a year ago and it was still there. I thought "Some day, I may get it..." And now I do!

 But wait, there's even more!

When it came to cake time I got another huge surprise. A Zerg base cake! I don't have the photos yet but that will come shortly. Thank you Ana!

More photos, thoughts from my kids and nephews to come later...

Diablo III impressions and patch 1.04

It's been a while since my last gaming update. This does not mean I didn't play any games, I was just to busy (lazy honestly speaking) to share that with you.

Since last time I have finished Skyrim's main quest line and played for maybe another couple of weeks wondering around and doing some small side quests. Then Dawnguard got announced for Xbox 360 only. Annoyed a bit I stopped playing Skyrim.

Then Diablo III got released. It was very easy to organize digital purchase, install it from daughter's DVD and start exploring. First few weeks were a bit frustrating due to problems Blizzard had - can't connect to server, kicked out of server due to maintenance, etc. Over the time things got better and I can't remember when something like that has happened.

I started with wizard as sorceress was my favourite class from Diablo II. It worked well and I have finished normal difficulty fairly quickly. Then I started playing cooperative games with my wife. We both created new characters for this purpose only maybe a 6 weeks ago. Now we a playing Inferno difficulty and both are level 60. I am demon hunter and she is a monk. This was a very good combination until we reached inferno difficulty. That was a real challenge. We were dying way too often, repair of gear costed too much (up to 30,000 gold) and most importantly it was frustrating and depressing.

Yesterday patch 1.04 got released. It has a whole plethora of improvements:

• Paragon levels
• Improvements of  Legendary items
• Shrink the gap between normal monsters and Elite packs (Champions and Rares) 
• Tuning of each player class
• many more

This patch made inferno difficulty much more enjoyable and gives you new goals to reach - paragon level 100.

For more details about the patch check these posts. 1.0.4 systems preview and patch notes.

More to come on Diablo III and with some pictures from game progress.

Skyrim - alchemy recipes for poisons and potions

One of features of Skyrim I really enjoy is the alchemy. There is a large number of available ingredients and quite a few combinations of these. I find potions very valuable and I make them whenever possible. Over the time I found some interesting combinations. Those are mostly poisons but I am quite happy with that.

Here are some I found/made recently:

• Poison of Damage Stamina Regen
• Ingedients: Histcarp, Elves Ear, Creep Cluster
• Effects: Decrease the target's Stamina regeneration by 110% for 101 seconds. Restore  126 points of Magicka

• Poison of Damage Magicka Regen
• Ingredients: Bear Claws, Hanging Moss
• Effects: Decrease the target's Magicka regeneration by 100% for 101 seconds. One-handed weapons do 81% more damage for 60 seconds. Health is increased by 81 points for 60 seconds.

If you just add Glow Dust to previous mix you'll get this:

• Poison of Damage Magicka Regen
• Ingredients: Bear Claws, Glow Dust, Hanging Moss
• Effects: Decrease the target's Magicka regeneration by 100% for 101 seconds. One-handed weapons do 81% more damage for 60 seconds. Health is increased by 81 points for 60 seconds. Drains the target's Magicka by 61 points.

• Poison of Damage Magicka Regen
• Ingredients: Nightshade, Butterfly wing, Glow Dust
• Effects:  Decrease the target's Magicka regeneration by 100% for 101 seconds. Destruction spells are 101% stronger for 60 seconds. Drains the target's Magicka by 60 points.

•  Potion of Fortify Destruction
• Ingredients: Hawk Feathers, Wisp Wrappings, Beehive Husk
• Effects:  Destruction spells are 126% stronger for 60 seconds. You are 101% harder to detect for 60 seconds. Increases Light Armour skills by 50 points for 60 seconds.

• Potion of Fortify One-Handed
• Ingredients: Bear Claws, Hawk Feathers, Honeycomb
• Effects:  One-handed weapons do 101% more damage for 60 seconds. Increases Light Armour skill by 50 points for 60 seconds. Restore 158 Stamina.

You will get different strength of potions even if you use the same ingredients. Any enchanted items that  improve alchemy skills are greatly recommended. When making these I had these items:

• Helmet - gave me 26% increase
• Ring - 22% increase
• Necklace - 22% increase

And that is still not fully developed Alchemy skill tree. I don't have the Poisoner perk yet that would give me the 25% stronger poisons. As you can see there is still room to make even better potions. Additional benefit is in money of course. Some of these can be sold for almost a 1000 gold. If you have Sinderion's Serendipity then you can get two potions at once. 

If you have some good potion recipes I would love the hear from you. Happy potion making!

Skyrim and Elder Scrolls news

As if spending a lot of time (about 600+ hours) playing Skyrim was not enough Bethesda made two big announcements in three days. Firstly, Dawnguard is announced for this winter (I'm in New Zealand). Dawnguard will be available for Xbox 360 first and other platforms are expected to follow few months later.

There is no information at point but some people were digging through update files and found some references to White Elves and crossbow weapons. It may be interesting to see Skyrim before Falmers.

Then today there is Game informer's announcement (sort of) of Elder Scrolls Online. Bethesda blog has some details :

The Elder Scrolls Online is planned for a 2013 release on both PC and Mac. To keep up on the latest news for the game, check out our official Twitter and Facebook accounts for the game, and also visit the game’s discussion forums.

To prepare for this I will take a photo of myself, send it to friends and family and start wondering through Tamriel with my dearest wife. Together we will roam the Tamriel and collect huge wealth in gold, weapons and potions. Until then I shall explore remaining parts of Skyrim and get few more perks.

Skyrim - tips from my experience

I played Skyrim  for about 600+ hours so far and at the moment I'm level 58. The main quest is finished but there are still things to do, items to collect and bad guys to kill. Here some of the things I would do differently (tips for other players maybe) if I would start it all over again.


1. Develop speech early
Late(r) in the game you will end up with a lot items and selling them is painfully slow if you can't sell any item to any merchant (Merchant perk). To make this even more efficient use an `Investor` perk and with it you can sell lot a more whole lot faster.

2. Develop smiting very early
If you are not a pure mage (let me know if you are, I'd like to know how are you doing) develop smiting completely. With smiting (and enchanting) you can create weapons more powerful then ones you loot or what would you get for completing a quest. For example see my dedric bow.

The problem is that I can't sell it to anyone... Bethesda, can you do something about this? Maybe create an exclusive merchant for really valuable/expensive items?


3. Enchant, enchant, enchant
Enchanting goes hand in hand with smiting. To start with it collect any magic item you can find and disenchant them. That gives you a wide selection of options to use on your weapons and other items. Once fully developed (top perk) you can put two enchantments on an item and that is fun and frustration at the same time. Previously I used capture soul and magicka damage on ebony bow. Now I have paralyze + soul capture. It is fun to see Drugar Deathlord do "planking" when hit by arrow. Frustration comes when you can put enchantment you want to an item you want, e.g. fortify archery can't be applied to torso armour.


4. Make potions, a lot of them
For my style of playing potions are very important. With enough skills (and lot of experimentation) you can make a potion for almost anything. The ones I make a lot are fortification potions for smiting, enchanting archery. On occasion I make a very nasty poison and then I apply it to my meele weapon. I forgot one - carry weight.

5. Vary your tactics
Change your tactics depending on the situation. Recently I have found that I am levelling up slowly, slower than usual. What I was doing was simple - get my powerful bow, sneak in and kill them all while sneaking. It works fine (more than fine - I can kill a giant with single arrow) but it becomes a habit and all of a sudden game can become predictable (or even boring). Remember that spells you learned a while ago but not using it? Maybe it is a rune and having a single, narrow corridor is a perfect place to put one in. Then lure the enemy in and take care of the rest with some other spell.


6. Choose your quests
As any RPG game Skyrim is about making decisions. Stay true to your beliefs and don't do quests you don't like. I will not do Boethiah quest just to get an item. I can forge and enchant better item anyway. Dark Brotherhood quests could be the same.

7. Join the Bard's College
Bard is not really an inviting title/class of player but if you go to Solitude do quests for them. You'll work hard to get the quest item and reward is very good. If you didn't do one I won't spoil it but I'll say reward is not in gold... Also, if you want training in speech you are at the right place.


8. Check your inventory/stash
It is easy to forget what did you find in the cave last week or the spell book you bought. I did forget about some spells and I am trying to use them more now. These are telekinesis, transmute, calm and fury. And ebony skin. I'm sure there is an Azura star somewhere in a chest in one of houses I own...


9. Don't forget the real world
Playing Skyrim is fun and it is so easy to forget to take care of daily things we do like the rubbish out or buy bread and milk for tomorrow. If it easier to remember watch that episode of Big Bang Theory when Penny starts playing Age of Conan...

Weapons crafting in Skyrim

I started playing Skyrim shortly after it was released and I really like this game. My wife also plays it a lot and very often we talk about quests, places, strategies and weapons. Recently I showed her my ebony bow and she was impressed. She is about 10 levels stronger than me but she can't make the bow that good.

That got me thinking how did I make it so good and how to improve that skill even further. At the moment I am testing my process and I'll post here full details how to get really good bow or other weapons. My latest success - killed a giant with a single arrow while sneaking!

Here is a screenshot of my preferred bow.

In next post expect description of reasonably lengthy process that will give you ability to craft powerful weapons.

New Nintendo's console details

We haven't seen a new gaming console in a while and it was expected to get one from Nintendo first. 2006 was a long time ago in computing/electronics world...


What do we know about new console? In June we should see working prototype at E3 in Los Angeles. 


"Nintendo Co., Ltd. has decided to launch in 2012 a system to succeed Wii, which the company has sold 86.01 million units on a consolidated shipment basis between its launch in 2006 and the end of March 2011," the company said in a statement. "We will show a playable model of the new system and announce more specifications at the E3 Expo, which will be held June 7-9, 2011, in Los Angeles."
From Ars Techica.


There are some hardware specifications leaked and according to news in various sources new system will have:

• 8GB of internal, flash-based storage
• 25GB optical discs
• IBM 3 core CPU
• AMD graphics card
• Support for high definition graphics
• Touch screen on controler
• Streaming technology (console to controller or TV)

What else we can expect? More CPU power than PS 3 or Xbox 360. I don't think they will focus much on 3D as DS 3D is out but the Nintendo itself is saying that 3D TVs are not widespread enough yet. It will have 3D capabilities built in. In terms of controlers Wiimote was the first one and it was great. Now Playstation has Move and Xbox has Kinect. I would not expect anything revolutionary here but you never know.

Hopefully Nintendo will make some new games designed from ground up to support HD graphics. I don't think anyone would enjoy playing low polygon character and other geometry on full LED HD TV.

Time will tell and it may be soon. It is only 33 days until E3.

Burning Tide - first official custom map for Starcraft II

I guess every player of Starcraft had a go at creating maps. It is tempting to have the same tool Blizzard is using to make their maps and see how your map compares to official ones. Sometimes (or often) it leads to disappointment and realization of how much work it takes to make a good map. By good map I consider layout, access routes, resources and aesthetics. I still have to try making a map in new editor for Starcraft II and see how long it will take me to abandon my hope.

On the other hand, some people are creating really good maps that are fun to play and look and feel like a product rather than an exercise in editor.

Therefore it is a big news that Blizzard has published this custom map. The map is taking the idea from Devil's Playground mission and bringing it up to a multiplayer level. Here is official description:

Featuring timed lava surges and collectable mineral caches, Burning Tide is a 3v3 map that combines several thematic elements from the epic single-player campaign mission "Devil's Playground." Like the campaign mission, the goal of this game is greed, and the first team to reach the specified resource total wins! Players hoping to achieve victory on this map will need to work together, carefully managing their team's unit production and safeguarding their vulnerable workers as they defend against enemy forces.

Here is how it looks.

I haven't played it yet but it obviously takes resource collection strategy to a new level. Workforce generation   and it's protection is a key for this map. Air force seems like a key player...

Fiat 500 in Gran Turismo 5

In my previous post about GT 5 I have mentioned Fiat 500. Now we have a video (not an official one but still good enough) showing race at  Piazza Del Campo.

If you haven't seen interior of Fiat 500 you will have an opportunity here. Dashboard is equipped with basics only - speedometer, flip switches for lights and an ashtray. Compare the original dahsboard with the Zastava I used to drive.

Fiat 500

Zastava 750

Speed is a typical for this car - about 60 km/h.



I will enjoy driving this little car in GT 5 even it will be mostly frustrating (what else can you expect from 500 cc engine?).

Official list of features in Gran Turismo 5

At GamesCom we saw more features of GT 5 including a new track, karts and new cars. Now Playstation Blog and GranTurismo.com sites have an official announcement of features.

Features announced are:

• A and B Spec modes
• Car dealers and Used car dealers
• My Lounge
• Course Maker
• Kart racing

A and B Spec modes

A Spec is standard mode we all know and love. Here you are behind the wheel and racing on all courses. In B Spec mode you are the team manager. As a manager you will have to analyse races, pick the best driver for a race and train them.

 

My Lounge

If you would rather have your friends only in the race then this is the place for you. In My Lounge you can set up your own race event with a track of your choice, your rules and let your mates to join. Up to 16 player can join a race in My Lounge. 

Course Maker

This  is an exciting new feature. As described in my last post it does not gives you full freedom but it still should be quite interesting. Tracks are created by by choosing a scene and then specify length of track, number of corners, sharpness, loop track or point to point, etc. Process is a bit more elaborated and this is one of the features I'll be interested to try. Of course, tracks you create can be shared with other people.

Here are few screenshots of garage and tune shop.

To me it looks like it worth the wait for GT 5.

New GT 5 screenshots

There are new screenshots posted on the web but I would like to share few of my favourites here.

Lamborghini Miura was one of my favourite die cast models when I was kid. I'm glad to see it in the game.

When I was old enough to drive I got to drive my dad's car - Zastava 850 De Lux. That was built in Yugoslavia and it was based on Fiat 500 but it was "beefed up" to whole 850 cc. This is how it looked.

Below is the original Fiat 500 in GT 5.

Some classic muscle cars.

Another Lambo

And some kart cars to finish off.

Brief GamesCon 2010 update

GamesCon is on and there are few updates that sparked my interest, again.


Firstly, there are news about Diablo III. Diablo III realm was quiet for a while and now we have some videos showing new features. Namely, the video shows Artisan. Artisan is an advanced blacksmith that will work for you. New and interesting features about artisans are:

• They can level up
• they can create sockets in any weapon
• when crafting an item(s) random special ability is added

Socketing of legendary items is very nice but I'm sure it would cost you an arm and a leg. To help you get some materials you can now salvage items you collect. Salvaged materials can be then used by an artisan. This could be a good way to get to better items faster.

Here is a video showing features of Artisan

While we are on the subject of RPG games, Torchlight II is announced. It has all loved features from the first one (random dungeons, simplicity, etc) and the one that was missing - multiplayer. Here is the trailer for it.







And now something completely different!


Cars. Lots of cars. Of course this means Gran Toursimo 5. There are lots of videos for GT 5 from GamesCon and most of the good ones are on GTPlanet web site. Some of the highlights from the news so far:

• Karting video now available
• More info on track editor
• Monza gameplay video
• Nascar at Monza gameplay
• Interview with Yamauchi

News about karting in GT 5 surfaced not too long ago (about 1-2 months I think) but there wasn't much out there. Now we can see how it actually looks. It does support usual views like in standard cars and this looks like a fun category.

For track editor we know it will not be a full blown "free to do whatever you like" style editor. The reason is simple - it would be too complex (and probably would take another year to implement). Actually, this could be a good thing. The way it will work (if it does not get sacked or changed) is like this

The course maker allows players to select certain set parameters to create a track. A theme can be selected, with the Belgian High Fens or Toscana two examples, and the individual track sectors are then defined.

Sectors are edited individually, with frequency of curves, sharpness of corners, degree of topography and banking angle are set with a series of sliders. 

As expected, on every big gaming event we see more details about tracks, UI changes and cars. This time round we see the Monza track. Here is how it looks.



For Nascar race on same track you'll have to go here due to bandwidth issue at present.


If you like interviews then here is another short one. For me most interesting bits are below.

Given the time, money, space and resources, which fantasy Gran Turismo track would you create in the real world?

Kazunori was visibly awed by this question and spent nearly a minute thinking of an answer. “Deep Forest”, he said. I countered with “Trial Mountain?”.

Both are classic tracks and it would be nice if that Japanese company is actually going to build it.

More news and videos should be coming in. Let's hope we will see more details about Diablo III.

Starcraft II - full version

Yesterday I got an early Father's Day present from my son and daughter - Starcraft II game. This was 4 weeks in advance and it made me a very, very happy. Thank you very much once again!

Over last week I spent free time playing Starcraft on guest account (I wrote a short post about that earlier) and I have to say that 7 hours is not much. In those 7 hours I have finished 5 missions.

I choose to play single player campaign rather than jump straight into multiplayer because I wanted to see how did Blizzard developed the storyline, integrated game interface (deck, laboratory, armoury areas) and see how engaging they are. Missions so far were not too difficult, I tried to achieve a goal using only units intended for these missions. The only one that gave me some trouble is "The great train robbery" mission. I had to stop playing it first time when my 7 hours of guest pass expired. Yesterday I was quite keen to finish (or retry) this mission and maybe after 15 minutes of play my internet connection got lost. The problem with this is that Starcraft then does not store/post your achievements on-line (I think this includes finishing the mission) so I stopped playing it for a night. Tonight I'll restart this mission and hope not to loose internet connection again.

Maybe I'll remember to take a few screenshots during the game. If I do you'll find them here.

Starcraft II problems - solved!

I have to thank Savbot for his workaround! Now Starcraft II is patched and ready for play.
Sometime tonight I'll start playing and hopefully post my first impressions.

Until then good luck!

Starcraft II problems

I got a guest pass for Starcraft II from David and I couldn't wait to start playing. But is is not meant to be yet.
This should be a very easy process - install Starcraft II, patch it up, sign up on Battle.net and play for 7 hours straight.

If you do get a guest pass you should also borrow friend's DVD and install the game. I did that and that was OK even if it took a while. Before install make sure you have 12 GB free on hard disk. BTW my UT 3 install is about the same size but includes CBPs 1-4 and number of downloaded maps...

After install if goes automatically to download the patch 1.01 so it would not fry your graphics card. This is also a nice feature. And this is where it went wrong for me. Download of the patch stopped at 64% and would not go any further. Then I tried to patch it up at work but also no joy. Firstly I had to let it through the firewall but still it didn't get updated. Next thing to try was to repair installation of Startcraft II. That didn't help. To force restart of the patch download I have deleted content of the C:\\StarCraft II\Updates folder and it did start download from the beginning. Then I'm back to issue with only 64% of download completed. 

OK, I'll download the patch myself thank you very much! But this didn't work either. Just now I have found a thread on Battle.net forum about this and possible workaround. If you have the same problem go here to see it.

I'll try this workaround from Savbot when I get home.


1) first of all you will need to Download a Torrent Downloader program, in my case i used uTorrent.
2) install uTorrent.
3) go into you Starcraft 2 directory, and you will see 6x torrent files. These are the torrent files that Blizzard Downloader created for download of the patch content.
4) now open those torrent file with uTorrent, and download the patch content through uTorrent rather then through Blizzard Downloader (which NEVER works btw).
5) after all the files have downloaded go into where the files have downloaded to usually under user/downloads.
6) look for a file called updates (this is the patch content for 1.0.1)
7) copy and paste the updates folder into you Starcraft 2 directory.
8) Run game, and the game will do the rest.


An update about actuall game may come soon!

Owned in Zen pinball

A while ago we purchased Zen pinball for PS 3. I love this game and it feels good when you play it. Zen Studios is doing it right by releasing new tables from time to time to keep us interested in the game. One of these additional downloadable tables is Ninja Gaiden 2. If you haven't played it check the trailer below.



Me and my wife have been playing Ninja Gaiden for a while and usual score we get in a game is about 5-7 M. But few days ago I got owned big time. Jasmine had a multi-ball for about 1.5 - 2 minutes. Her final result after that was a whooping 49,864,000. I know it is nowhere near on-line high scores but since we play local hotseat these don't get posted.

During multi-ball, 3 balls were stuck in right lane just above the right flipper (detail highlighted below). Could this be the reason? I don't know but if you do let me know.

Asus Ares - fast and expensive

Buying a graphic card for PC is always a difficult. Just when you finalize your decision new model comes along. One option to reduce frequency of graphic card upgrades is to buy fastest dual card. One of these is Asus ARES. I would love to give you personal experience but for a number of reasons I can only point you to a review done by Hot Hardware site.

Here is how this beast looks like.

Summary of features includes:

• 4 Gb GDDR5 memory
• 4800 MHz memory clock
• 3200 stream processors
• metal case

It is obvious this is no average stuff. Everything that comes in metal case with foam mould is expensive, really expensive. Think about $1200 USD.

To find the details about this card check the review. If you find reading of 11 pages too long here are the key points:

• fastest card ever (for now at least)
• overclocking is supported
• gaming mouse included

So, if you have some extra money and big power supply treat yourself...

Are you fast in Starcraft?

Starcraft is a truly legendary RTS game. It stood the test of time and it is probably the best RTS game. I've been playing it with friends for a long time and it was a great fun. We used to record matches and then discuss them and have a good time analyzing strategies and moves made. All those games were very casual, even we tried hard to be the best.

Korean players are well known to be the Masters of Starcraft. In general, Korea has adopted Starcraft as a national sport. Just have a look at this or this.  As a result they have a lot of really good and really fast players. Professional players must be fast if they are expecting to win the tournament(s). Speed is measured as APM (actions per minute).

To see what this is watch the video below.



So, you think you can beat 200 APM? Or even 300 APM? I would love to know your secret and see you play.

New high definition cable - HDBaseT

Just when you think you are all sorted for HD TV and 3D movies somebody thinks of new standard or in this case, interface. But it is not all bad. The latest is HDBaseT.

What is HDBaseT?

This is a product of HDBaseT Alliance - a specification for unified distribution of uncompressed HD content. It has a bandwidth to support full HD, 3D and 2Kx4K formats.

How does it look like?

You are almost certainly familiar with it. It is your standard network cable, cat 5 or 6 with RJ-45 connector.

For comparison of features have a look at this document.

Who is behind it?

HDBaseT is supported by founding companies: LG electronics, Samsung Electronics, Sony Pictures and Valens Semiconductor.


Will it matter?

It's hard to say yet. Definitely it is a good candidate for a race. It is base on existing, cheap, proven and standard port/cable pair. The questions is how will other big player respond. It is hard to say what Sony Entertainment will do since they are supporting (installing) HDMI in Playstation 3. I don't see a change coming to PS 3 any time soon. But I would love to use my existing home network used for delivery of HD movies. As always, time will tell who will prevail.